When transmitting a video program via a digital delivery system such as cable, satellite, over the airwaves, through the Internet, and the like, the video program is delivered as a series of data packets which are eventually decoded by a video receiver. Currently, video delivery systems utilizing either satellite or over the air transmissions are typically known as being a “one way” transmission, where a majority of video information is transmitted from a program broadcaster to a video receiver (in the form of a device such as a set top box or television set). If a receiving device however does support a back channel, the amount of information that is capable of being transmitted back to a broadcaster (upstream) is typically less than what is transmitted from the broadcaster to the receiving device (downstream).
When delivering video content however through a satellite transmission or an over the air broadcast, such delivery systems do not support trick play functions such as fast forwarding, reverse, pause, skipping ahead/behind a specified amount of time because there is no way for a broadcaster support such features when broadcasting video to a large number of video receivers. Specifically, if each user operating a video receiver were to desire a different trick play function at the same time, there would be no way for a broadcaster to efficiently support all of those functions because of the limitations on the broadcast bandwidth available to a broadcaster.